

Zooming In at The UnPopulist
The UnPopulist
Exploring the ideas, and interviewing the writers, featured at The UnPopulist. www.theunpopulist.net
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jul 1, 2023 • 39min
Defending Academic Freedom Requires Standing Up For Open Inquiry: A Conversation with Jonathan Marks
Academic freedom is under assault, but who is mounting that assault depends on who you ask. The right has long argued that universities are controlled by the left with free inquiry as the victim. The liberal right, it turns out, doesn't much care for liberal education. The result is a wave of right-populist assaults on the very academic freedom they've historically claimed to support. To explore these issues, host Aaron Ross Powel is joined by Jonathan Marks. He's a professor of politics at Ursinus College and author of Let's Be Reasonable: A Conservative Case for Liberal Education. Get full access to The UnPopulist at www.theunpopulist.net/subscribe

Jun 10, 2023 • 41min
What the Left Gets Wrong About Liberalism: The UnPopulist Editor's Roundtable
Today, we have our editors' roundtable where host Aaron Ross Powell is joined by Shikha Dalmia and Akiva Malamet, to talk about liberalism and the left. Get full access to The UnPopulist at www.theunpopulist.net/subscribe

May 15, 2023 • 35min
Does Tucker Carlson Still Have a Future?: The UnPopulist Editors' Roundtable
Today we have our editors' roundtable. Host Aaron Ross Powell is joined by Shikha Dalmia and Akiva Malamet to discuss Tucker Carlson and the state of the American right. Get full access to The UnPopulist at www.theunpopulist.net/subscribe

May 4, 2023 • 32min
Feminism Fights for Liberty and Equality for All: An Interview With Kat Murti
It's all too common to dismiss ideas without understanding them. Feminism suffers this affliction more than most, with many people quick to denounce it while advancing very little knowledge of what feminists argue or what evidence they muster to support their claims. To help address that unfortunate ignorance, host Aaron Ross Powell is joined today by Kat Murti, co-founder of Feminists for Liberty. Get full access to The UnPopulist at www.theunpopulist.net/subscribe

Apr 9, 2023 • 50min
Is the Culture War Eating Every Policy Issue? The UnPopulist’s Editors Discuss
With this episode of Zooming In, The UnPopulist introduces a new monthly feature: a roundtable in which our editors discuss select issues of the day. Get full access to The UnPopulist at www.theunpopulist.net/subscribe

Apr 1, 2023 • 29min
The US Right's Dangerous Quest for Unbridled State Power: An Interview With Robert Tracinski
For a certain sort of social conservative, Viktor Orbán's Hungary is the North Star. The realization of fantasies about how social liberalism can be done away with and “trad living” elevated to primacy, if only the power of a committed executive were turned to that task. On today's episode, host Aaron Ross Powell is joined by Robert Tracinski. He's the editor of Symposium, a journal of liberalism, and writes additional commentary at The Tracinski Letter. Get full access to The UnPopulist at www.theunpopulist.net/subscribe

Feb 23, 2023 • 29min
The Past and Present of ‘Law and Order’ in Black Communities: An Interview With Pulitzer Prize-Winner Stephen Henderson
This is the concluding post in The UnPopulist’s coverage of Black History Month.Politicians love to stress the need for “law and order,” and most Americans are on board with that. But the phrase rings rather differently in middle-class suburbia than it does in those communities most subject to the heavy hand—or fist—of the law. To explore what law and order looks like in African American communities, host Aaron Ross Powell is joined today by Stephen Henderson. He’s the host of NPR’s Detroit Today and Detroit Public Television’s American Black Journal. Before working in TV and radio, Henderson won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary for his writing at the Detroit Free Press. Get full access to The UnPopulist at www.theunpopulist.net/subscribe

Feb 11, 2023 • 31min
Guilt, Fear, and Shape-Shifting in Post-Apartheid South Africa: An Interview With Author Eve Fairbanks
Note to listeners: This is the first of our Zooming In podcasts, which will feature in-depth conversations with The UnPopulist’s contributing writers on the subjects they’ve explored in their essays.Today's guest is Eve Fairbanks, author of The Inheritors: An Intimate Portrait of South Africa’s Racial Reckoning. Our conversation explores the complex history of post-apartheid race relations in South Africa, how it complicates simplistic narratives and what lessons Americans should draw as we seek to address our own country’s racist history. Get full access to The UnPopulist at www.theunpopulist.net/subscribe

Jan 19, 2023 • 45min
It’s Not Policy Disagreements But Wrong-Headed Means That Are Polarizing America
Welcome to the first episode of ReImagining Liberty at its new home with The UnPopulist. This is a show about the emancipatory and cosmopolitan case for radical social, political, and economic freedom. With every episode, host Aaron Ross Powell explores and defends liberalism by talking with scholars, activists, and others working to build a freer world.For this first episode at The UnPopulist, Aaron talks about why America’s political culture seems so broken, and why this has led to rising illiberalism. He traces the problems to what he calls an “unskillful” approach to politics, and a widespread lack of the virtues necessary for citizens to be good liberal citizens.Join the ReImagining Liberty Discord community and book club: https://discord.com/servers/reimagining-liberty-945306941251522611ReImagining Liberty is a project of The UnPopulist and is produced by Landry Ayres. Get full access to The UnPopulist at www.theunpopulist.net/subscribe

Jan 13, 2023 • 47min
Is Neighborhood Fragmentation Polarizing America? An Interview with Johns Hopkins' Seth D. Kaplan
Our guest today argues that a lot of America's social and economic problems, including the rise of populism and the affinity for authoritarian leaders, can be traced back to changing relationships and institutions in our neighborhoods. Dr. Seth D. Kaplan is a Professorial Lecturer in the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, Senior Advisor for the Institute for Integrated Transitions, visiting Fellow with Mercatus Center's Program on Pluralism and Civil Exchange, and consultant to organizations such as the World Bank, USAID, the State Department, and OECD. He's the author of the forthcoming Fragile Neighborhoods: Repairing American Society, One Zip Code at a Time.Reactionary Minds is a project of The UnPopulist. Hosted by Aaron Ross Powell. Produced by Landry Ayres. Get full access to The UnPopulist at www.theunpopulist.net/subscribe


